Miscellany

I had a tooth pulled first thing this morning and the codeine prescription that I disregarded when it was handed to me now seems like a pretty good idea. So I don’t have a very cohesive post for today. Just some highlights:

The boys (Henry saw it and went crazy over "Wohwah") gave me a card with this sticker badge for Mother's Day. They (David) gave it to me to be funny, so I wore it to church to be funny. Then it proved to be too distracting to one of the 3-year-olds to whom I was trying to teach songs about Jesus, so I took it off, which proved to be too disturbing to Calvin, who apparently had visions of me never removing it. Ever. That’s what I get for trying to be funny. Not even one adult so much as smiled at it. I treasure the Dora sticker, but I'm going to try to score a corsage next year.

In addition to Henry's other sweet little gift, Calvin made me this (complete with blue tulle shoulder/doorknob strap) in his Sunday School class, but his teacher actually ended up giving it to me because he refused to. Apparently, he was trying to color one whole side of it solid orange and wasn’t finished when class time was over. He told his teacher he wasn’t going to give it to me since it wasn’t finished. David asked him afterward if he was a good boy for his teacher, and Cal answered that he was, but, “I got a little grouchy because it was time to put the crayons away and go sing.” Oh, the things that we pass down…

I also got some sniff-o-rifics from Bath and Body Works and David gave me a very cool book, pertinent to my momming life and frequent blogging topics, which I am excited to read, and I will reserve discussion of that for a post when my sinuses don't feel twisted and novocaine isn't fading into waves of mild nausea.

Cal has started another list. This time it is a cooperative effort, and he has been asking me about adding certain things to it all morning. This list is, “Things That Grow.” First, it only had three items: Strawberries, Bananas and Tomatoes. Then he asked me about every fruit we have in the kitchen – “Do apples grow? What about lemons?” At one point he had about ten things that grow (mostly fruit) on the list, then condensed it to three again: Fruit, Tomatoes and Lettuce. Then it increased as he asked me about each vegetable he could think of, but now it’s down to a manageable list again: “Mom,” he told me a few minutes ago, “There are four things that grow! Fruits, Vegetables, Cabbage and Lettuce.” Leafy greens are apparently a category of their own for now. I’m debating whether I should remind him about things like trees, little boys and the national debt, or let him come up with those on his own.

Henry has started saying everything he possibly can. Today he saw what David was going to dress him in, and he said, “Bass-ball shut on.” (Translation: “Basketball shirt on.”) He loves balls. Cal has always been a truck and tool kind of boy, never played much with ball toys that we had, but Henry is all about throwing and catching, and can recognize and name the kinds of balls. He says, “Kick-ball” for a soccer ball. Other cute verbalizations include his rendition of the animal sounds, which are also his names for the animals. (A horse is not a horse, it’s a “Nay,” a dog is a “Woof Woof.”) The only animal he calls by name is a pig, and if you ask him what a pig says, he makes this incredible sound like a cat coughing up a hairball. So we ask him what a pig says several times a day.

But probably the best thing I've heard all week was Calvin's exclamation as we were driving home yesterday: “I’m so sweaty from all that church!”